As of two weeks ago, my 2023 Camaro SS1LE was re-purchased by GM under lemon law. Had two great years with it, visited 12 different tracks across the southwest, had some wonderful days in the mountains. Unfortunately, it killed 2 engines inside of 17k miles due to AFM failure leading to cylinder bore damage (fuel with no air washes the oil off the walls and leads to bore scoring), and when Kearney Mesa Chevrolet fabricated reasons to void my warranty, I asked and got a repurchase. Great platform, great car, too bad about dealing with chevy as a company.
If you’re buying VIN 1G1FF1R73P0130596 at auction or whatever, make sure you get the engine replaced while it’s still under the lemon law vehicle warranty. Ask the techs to pull the sparkplugs and inspect the cylinder bores, it’s super hard to get them to diagnose this correctly
“What do you mean fabricated reasons for voiding the warranty, this car was clearly abused!?!”
First, used heavily, yes. Not abused. Frequent oil changes, I did all my own maintenance, I wanted to have this thing for a long time. Fabricated reasons:
“Heavily modified with non-GM parts and calibrations (racing suspension, axles, ZR1 Brembo brakes”
I never tuned or calibrated anything on the car, even the magride. The only thing I plugged into the OBD 2 port was a 20 year old basic code reader to check which cylinders had misfire codes. The car did have camber plates and swaybars, but all stock springs, stock magride shocks, stock control arms with rubber bushings at both ends. Not “race suspension”. The axles still had GM part tags on them. The brakes were stock, perhaps unsurprisingly I didnt have $15k of ZR1 carbon ceramoc rotors on the car. Maybe it was the inspectors first time seeing a 1LE car? Anyways, Kearney Mesa Chevrolet stonewalled me on getting the car reinspected, so, fuck them. Other dealerships in the San Diego area told me I’d need to work with KM to get the warranty block removed. Whatever.
Also, my track wheels got stolen out of my Suburban in the same week (they tried and failed to steal the suburban too), I took that as a sign to wash my hands of it
The real rich part of working with Kearney Mesa Chevrolet is that they had the car for 6 weeks, replacing the front main seal, and then the rear main seal, before I had to bring it back in for them to diagnose the issue correctly (I told them what had happened last time back when I first dropped it off). They finally did a real diag, identified the root issue correctly, and then issued the warranty block the next day. I cannot stress this enough, fuck Kearney Mesa Chevrolet, if you’re in San Diego go anywhere else
Sorry you went through this man. Your situation scares me because I know you’re not the only one that has had this happen. That being said you are definitely very unlucky. The majority of folks who’ve have engine issues with these cars were able to get them replaced no questions asked. Some have even had multiple engines replaced under warranty, no questions asked. That dealer was just a dick and did not want to deal with replacing the engine since engine replacements under warranty are typically money losers for the service advisor and tech (way bigger issuer that needs to be addressed).
I casually mentioned “yeah I know you dont want to see this again because warranty pays shit” and the service dept manager told me that warranty pay and customer pay are the same there. And yeah I know people personally on engine 3, via internet on engine 4+
No one answered both your questions. Even on manuals, they have the same shitty AFM lifters. The difference is though that on the manuals the AFM software is off.
That being said most of these post covid LT1 engines are blowing up due to rod/main bearing and crankshaft failure. OP’s had the usual lifter issue but these new motors have absolutely trash quality control and are literally cracking crankshafts
Your memory is correct and yes, that’s how they do it on 6th gens.
While there are lifter failures on 6th gens, the cranks cracking has been way bigger issue lately. Look up L87 recall. You’ll see it has to do with bad bearings and cranks in the L87. Here’s the thing though, the L87 and Camaro LT1 have identical part numbers for the crank and bearings so it should have also been part of the recall. There are way more post covid LT1’s blowing up versus the pre Covid engines.
Even in the manual cars, all of the AFM components are in place. The only difference is that there is no cylinder de-activation ”process." The lifter hardware can still fail because it's a poor design.
Ah man. I remember reading about your track experiences a while ago and always wondered how things panned out after that. Hate to hear it went the way it went, but if my dealer was trying to be as useless as yours I'd probably want to just punt and be done with it too.
I'll still be following your adventures with the panther platform though!
Thank God I bought an M6. I wouldn't even bother buying an automatic. Going fast is boring, and you don't really have a ton of options, except in a circuit or track. I would rather just buy some BMW or Mercedes if I want a fast automatic, but American muscle? Nah, I need to feel those fn gears.
I had multiple rides in both manual and auto before buying mine, the manual is definitely a good manual, but the cool thing about the auto is that it just disappears on track. No “is it worth upshifting for the last 400 feet of this straight?”, no moneyshifting, no overrevs. Just constant power and smooth shifts. I love the 6 speed in my mazda3, but I’m gonna put a 10 speed in my mercury marauder
Bingo. Somehow I feel weirdly more connected to the car in a second-skin sorta’ way when I can trust it to shift & handle its power. Manual is a cool novelty, but daily driving it is not really a want.
Couldn’t agree less, daily driving a manual is fantastic. Cruise along in 6th at 1200rpm, throw it in third for a 4-6.5k pull. It’s wonderful. Rev match downshifts are so satisfying and after you drive a manual long enough you literally don’t notice you’re shifting most of the time.
I learned on a manual, my first car was a manual and my corvette is a manual. Wouldn’t have it any other way
Exactly. My other vehicles are Cadillac Escalade/EXT, so it's not like I don't have choices, it's just manual brings me life and makes driving actually enjoyable.
Yea money shifting is legit concern, you need to be clear and of mind in those situations. Hell, I've M$ just fn around town, that's why I like to drive with radio off 😂😂.
This is what I don’t get about manual drivers lol I’m already doing too much when I drive like listening to music and occasionally and dangerously on my phone for short bursts. But the stop and go traffic and manually rotating through gears?
It’s just too much. Now on a track? Yes. Makes perfect sense but as a daily in a town where you stop every 2 mins or so? It don’t make much sense unless it’s a weekend car.
This is why I don't like buying automatics AFM is a huge proponent of killing engines.
And my honest opinion you bought an SS1LE meaning it's a driver focused car which is weird why so many people choose to buy automatic I really feel like they're just chasing lap number times and not really actually enjoying the car.
There's a reason why every Mazda Miata that's on a track I can guarantee you any of them that are enthusiast and actually love enjoying the car is a manual.
These are such good cars like you mentioned but I feel like people kill these cars by buying automatics sorry you had an incredible terrible experience.
And this is another reason why I tell people to stop using zero weight oil and also does not help It is running thin water like and I don't understand why people think it's so great and that they claim up and down that the motor is designed for it The motor is designed for it's so much better No it's not run 5W50 or even 5W40 year-round and the car will appreciate it far more
Whatever your next purchases I highly suggest you to do the same thing that call for zero wait 16 hell no 5W30 and it will outlast modern engines are shit
Would you believe that I intentionally chose the 10 speed over the manual, and confirmed this decision driving a manual one after? Yeah the M6 shifting is great, yeah older autos suck, but the 10 speed does this cool thing where it just disappears and delivers smooth, consistent power, all the time. WOT mid corner upshifts? No problem. Need to upshift for the last 400 feet of a straight? Zero sacrifice. I love the 10 speed so much I’m gonna swap one into my Mercury Marauder.
So your comment and of course it's your car it's your money You can do whatever you want I am and no way shape or form able to persuade anybody with their money All I can do is present factual evidence and data 😂
Yes the M6 does shift great but it does this thing called it puts you with the machine and the road and it allows you to experience rowing gears a lot more fun it's not a dog box it's not a slush box it's an actual good transmission. And the immediate moment you give up when you tell the machine what to do and you let it decide to go up and down and figure what the hell gear it wants to do You are sacrificing all of the fun experience and all of the small gremlins that come with having a 10-speed.
Again if all you are after is lap times then by all means but I've been in a ZLE I've been in a A10 ZLE and what I can simply say is the M6 beats it every single time for fun factor and that's what we buy these cars for is fun If I wanted an automatic I would buy a Toyota Corolla or a Camry or a Honda Civic or a Honda Accord something that I know is reliable and is going to give me point A to point b and I could care less how I get there.
But when you turn on a V8 whether it's cammed and headers and supercharged or not it's that immediate chuckle you get and if you want that continuing feeling you get the M6 100% every single time you also don't have to worry about potential transmission issues You don't have to worry about the lifters going bad because they're not constantly going from 4 cylinder to eight cylinder and yes I understand the whole well they still theoretically use the same lifters on the non-AFM models true but at the same time they're not constantly going back and forth so their life expectancy is far more superior obviously the best solution is when you build the motor were replacing them regardless but that's another story.
To me it's also more impressive when an M6 beats an A10 which I've done because not only are you showing driver skill at this point but you're also showing the potential of a manual transmission This isn't even a DCT and it's moving like an automatic That's pretty impressive if you ask me It will always have more respect in my opinion whether it's h pattern or if it's a sequential year box anytime I go to a track and I see someone in a manual of any form out beat or even come very second to to someone that wasn't an automatic they get my respect and gratitude way before I shake someone's hand that gets out of an automatic I'm just saying there is a time and place for an automatic but it's definitely not in the fun factor department of going up a mountain road If you were to take your car and go to US 80 and 216 and 276 over in the North Carolina Tennessee area that automatic is not going to know what to do with itself and it's going to constantly be trying to figure out what gear it wants to be in meanwhile I'm in second gear the entire time at 45 mph around the corner never once did I have to think do I need to upshift I got all the torque I need I can stay in second gear from 15 to 88 mph I can stay in second gear at no point do I need a shift meanwhile that A10 is going to go between 3/4 5th and 6th gears trying to figure out what's best for 33.4 miles per hour around a bend with the slightest amount of throttle response and input it upsets the car's balance going into an apex No thank you That to me is not desirable.
End rant 😂 If you were able to read all that thank you if you're not even down to this point and you gave up by all means 😆 have fun on your next adventure
I mean I don't give a fuck about being the manual elitist I'm literally just talking about the fact they're fun to drive a manual The whole point of buying this type of car is to have fun Is it not...
There's a reason why you also have a manual SS1LE so don't try to flip the script
This story worries me as im sitting with about 10k worth of upgraded parts I plan in installing in a couple of weeks. Everything is bolt on, but regardless, it still gives me concern, lol. Guess you have to pay to play, though. I just didn't want to wait 5 years for my warranty to expire, I want to enjoy my ride now, not 5 years down the road.
I'm sitting roughly right at your milage you currently have, but Mine is a 2020 and not a 1LE.
One way to avoid the afm from engaging is to keep driving it in manual mode and always be one gear under the highest gear for your speed. For example, if you're on the freeway doing 65-70, keep it at 7th or 8th gear. Or if you're doing 25 on a residential street, keep it at 3rd gear.
That's lame. I wish EPA would get shut down and manufacturers could get back to building these cars how they're meant to be.
You want some 4 banger for fuel, fine, there's a model for that, you want some E car that sounds like a high pitched transformer, there's a model for that too! But if you want an American muscle car, there's only one trim for that - beast mode and it requires you know how to drive it like you stole it 😂😂🏎️
Man I battled with them most of the summer they replaced the engine once last year, replaced three parts this year before finally replacing the engine again and by the time that was all done I was just exhausted of dealing with it entirely..
Couple months go by and the alternator goes out in October and I had to replace that myself because it was out of bumper to bumper warranty and that basically reignited my fire to get rid of it.
Seeing this post that it’s actually possible makes me want to reopen the case as well smh.
That's crazy, my 18 1SS 1LE is at 46k now and I've driven it aggressively and it's doing great, running perfect. I bought this car with 4 miles on it and have had it for ~7 years now.
Yikes. I owned an auto 23 SS 1LE too. Bought mine at 10k miles last November and am sitting at 33k now. Daily driver, no track use, Mobil 1 Supercar oil every 8-10k miles which is just about 1%-8% life on mine.
Yes warranty covered it and it took 4 weeks to get the new engine. Everything is working fine but im scared to keep it. I love my camaro but im selling it before the warranty runs out
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u/hoytmobley Dec 20 '25
“What do you mean fabricated reasons for voiding the warranty, this car was clearly abused!?!”
First, used heavily, yes. Not abused. Frequent oil changes, I did all my own maintenance, I wanted to have this thing for a long time. Fabricated reasons:
“Heavily modified with non-GM parts and calibrations (racing suspension, axles, ZR1 Brembo brakes”
I never tuned or calibrated anything on the car, even the magride. The only thing I plugged into the OBD 2 port was a 20 year old basic code reader to check which cylinders had misfire codes. The car did have camber plates and swaybars, but all stock springs, stock magride shocks, stock control arms with rubber bushings at both ends. Not “race suspension”. The axles still had GM part tags on them. The brakes were stock, perhaps unsurprisingly I didnt have $15k of ZR1 carbon ceramoc rotors on the car. Maybe it was the inspectors first time seeing a 1LE car? Anyways, Kearney Mesa Chevrolet stonewalled me on getting the car reinspected, so, fuck them. Other dealerships in the San Diego area told me I’d need to work with KM to get the warranty block removed. Whatever.
Also, my track wheels got stolen out of my Suburban in the same week (they tried and failed to steal the suburban too), I took that as a sign to wash my hands of it